A North Korean has defected to South Korea after crossing the military border in the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap News Agency reported, identifying the defector as a soldier.
Seoul’s military said Tuesday it had captured a “North Korean suspect on the eastern front and handed him over to relevant authorities.” The person was a sergeant, Yonhap news agency reported.
The armed forces said that “the relevant authorities are currently conducting investigations and therefore cannot confirm the detailed process of the defection,” or the exact motives and objectives of this individual.
Defections by North Koreans across the border are risky and relatively rare, with most defectors heading south via China or other third countries.
The defector was walking along a road along the waterfront in the eastern province of Kangwon, wearing a North Korean military uniform, when authorities arrested him, local media reported.
A South Korean defense ministry official said the military had detained a person believed to be a North Korean on the eastern front, and authorities were questioning the motive for the crossing. The official declined to provide further details.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it did not detect any unusual movement by the North Korean military at the time of the defection.
This is the second cross-border defection between the two Koreas in just two weeks, after another North Korean successfully crossed the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea on August 8.
The defections come as relations between the two Koreas have hit their lowest point in years, with the North stepping up weapons testing and bombarding the South with balloons carrying garbage.
The number of successful defections has dropped dramatically since 2020 after North Korea closed its borders — allegedly with shoot-on-the-spot orders along the land border with China — to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
But after border controls were eased in 2023, the number of defectors arriving in the South nearly tripled last year to 196, Seoul said in January, with more diplomats and elite students seeking to defect, compared with 67 in 2022.
Last week, North Korea’s tourism authorities unexpectedly announced that the country would reopen to foreign tourists this winter.
With AFP and Reuters
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